Remembering

I was in the car driving all day listening to the re-broadcast of the 9/11 news, always a hard thing to hear and re-live. I just wanted to thank Karen in England for her very kind email, made me go back to counting blessings instead of tragedies. It made me remember my mom, who said the good always outweighs the bad.

The Primmity Prim Cabin Collection

I had an early disaster in my quest to dress up these early early originals. My vision, stain yards of cheesecloth and feedsacking, stencil and stamp to finish. I carefully followed the directions on the Rit dye package and everything turned out horribly wrong, not a good deep tan at all but a muddy yucky mess. I went straight back to coffee and walnut ink and beauty of the primmest succeeded. I just love everything in this collection, torn between wanting good sales and not wanting to part with it! The big apple bucket will be $78, the firkin with lid $98, without lid $75, tiny apple seed bucket $28, shoes $48, and the tiny bread board with the flour sleeve (I just picked that up at Gatherings recently and added the sleeve and spoon) is $48.

A Few More of My Favorite Galena Places

Provencale is a lovely store run by a couple from Provence, they are so nice, always have candy for my daughters, and send us recipes by email. The Galena Peddlery sells teas and herbs and antiques, it smells so good!

A Day in Galena

I finally finally remembered to take my camera with me on my travels. This weekend took us to Galena, the most beautiful town on earth. It used to also be antique mecca, now just fancy boutiques, but still a lovely place to visit. The horse in the window of the diagonal building is one of my favorite things. I also love the Dowling House, oldest home in town, and one old standby remains, the Galena Cheese House, wonderful gourmet and wine shop. The last photo is the place it all started for me in the antique business--over 25 years ago my husband and I opened our first booth in the Main St. Mall, now a hotel.

A Fine Mess

A few years ago, Martha Stewart allowed her show to film her very messy office, and ever since I have breathed a sigh of relief over my own disorganized work space. I do wish I was fibbing that decorating my own house often gets short shrift, but here it is, the proof! I have antique ADD, all excited about a project that I start, then oh, dear, look at that cute thing over there and what could I do with it! Sooo, my sink is always full of tins and bowls that need a scrub (always surprised at how many dealers miss that simple act of just taking the dust off), the shelves always covered with ebay stuff that needs a photograph, then there is the pie safe that we don't have room for, so it sits in the middle of the living room, its moving ropes still tied around it and it makes a handy place to put the ebay stuff. My couch usually covered with fabric, or as now, the freshly laundered feedsacks awaiting their fate...

Antique Insomnia

I went to Kalona yesterday, it was supposed to just be a quick trip to Barntiques to restock, but Nancy had some wonderful feedsacks and spice tins and the bowl I've been coveting and finally bought--I got all inspired and just headed on down the road to Sisters and the Kalona Antique Co. What a good idea, because everyone had stocked up on prims, and between Nancy's feedsacks and the great early prim buckets I found, I got this idea of wrapping up the buckets with stained feedsack and cheesecloth--we'll see how it works. I could not get to sleep, bucket visions swirling around, then I started thinking more about the feedsack pumpkins and what I want to do there, then had a dream about making pillows with pockets full of clothespegs--who dreams about clothespegs, I ask myself. In the meantime, I'm also off on a Christmas tangent, here are some old tin things that just looked so pretty on greenery...

For Karen Who is Never Surprised at How Long it Takes Me to Remember Things

Karen, the box is a really good one, stamped on the bottom and everything, masher is handmade and prim, tilts a bit and is a kid size, I think about 7" long, but it is upstairs and I am downstairs...